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How To Find Out What Google Knows About You

If you use any Google services, such as Maps, Google Earth, Gmail, search, or YouTube, you’re sharing your information to help Google match you with its advertisers. That’s right, all of those free services aren’t really free. You pay for them by sharing data about yourself with Google, unless you opt out.

Sharing your information doesn’t just help Google, it can also help you. Google uses your information to generate search results that have been filtered according to your interests. There are ways for you to search anonymously but you may not find the results to be as helpful as those tailored to your interests according to Google.

How Google Learns About and Uses Your Interests

When you search on Google, get directions from Google Maps, and watch YouTube videos, Google learns more about you. Google uses the information it learns about you to match you with advertisers who want to reach people with your interests.

You may feel that if you’re going to see targeted ads from Google you may as well have them be geared towards your interests. But if you would prefer ads that are not targeted to your interests you can opt out (see how to opt out below).

Why Check Your Interests

Sometimes the information Google learns can be inaccurate.

Let’s say your grandmother asks you for your favorite Pig’s Head and Pickled Herring casserole recipe for the holidays. You search Google for a recipe and reply, “Yummy! I can’t wait to make this!” to avoid breaking her heart with the news that you decided to become a vegan this summer. Google may also be fooled into thinking that you have a fondness for Grandma’s new favorite recipe and show you ads/search results for local butchers instead of for vegetable markets.

No worries, you can delete interests that aren’t a good fit for you.

How to Check Your Google History

Google learns about your interests through your history of using search, Google Maps and YouTube. Checking your Google history requires some light digging into the depths of Google, but may reveal a treasure trove of interesting information about you!

3) You’ll see your search history with Google. You can also see your search history and videos you’ve watched on YouTube by clicking on the choices in the menu on the left side.

You may find this to be a handy resource if you want to go back and find a website you visited or video you watched on YouTube.

Search History

Search History shows you the search terms you used and which web pages you visited from the search results. You can refine this information by using the filters on the left sidebar of the page to see which searches you did for news, images, travel, shopping, etc.

You can remove items from your search history by clicking on the check box next to a search term and then clicking the Remove Items button.

How to Check Your Interests

From your history, Google tries to understand your interests, but may not always get it right. You can help Google learn about you by reviewing these interests and eliminating any that aren’t a good fit.

From the Activities Control page, scroll down to Ads at the bottom of the page and click on it.

You’ll be taken to your Ad Settings page with demographic information about you. You’ll be shown a list of interests. Click on any you aren’t interested in to remove them from the list.

You can also add interests to the list to make the information more accurage.

About Google Targeted Ads

Google shows you targeted ads on its search results pages, in Gmail and in Google Maps. You can learn more about Google Targeted Ads at the Google Targeted Ads page.

Opting Out

At the bottom of the Ad Settings page you are given an option to opt out of Targeted ads.

Be warned though, you may end up seeing annoying ads that are completely irrelevant. Maybe you would prefer to see baby diaper ads when you’re not a new parent, versus seeing relevant targeted ads. Know that you do have a choice of which types of ads you want to see.

You can also click Pause on your Account History page to stop location and/or search tracking.

My Results

Under Search History I learned that I have conducted a whopping 14293 Google searches and the days I search most frequently are Tuesdays and Thursdays (when I write Wonder of Tech articles).

My list of interests was fairly accurate, though it included an interest in Fiat for some unknown reason (I’ve never owned a Fiat and am not in the market for a new car).

Racquetball wasn’t listed as an interest, perhaps I should do more searches for racquetball or watch more racquetball videos on YouTube?

Poll

Do you prefer to see targeted ads? Vote in today’s poll and tell us how you feel:

Your Thoughts

Did you check your Google history and interests? Were your interests accurate? How do you feel about Google targeted ads? Would you be willing to pay a fee to Google to use its services and avoid ads? Let us know in the Comments section below!

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Reader Interactions

Comments

You always manage to find something interesting to write about. I have never delved into the world of what Google is recording with regards to our online behavior, although I knew it would be a lot. I am not sure I would bother changing the interests, as I ignore most of the ads, and they rarely annoy me enough to do anything about it.
I voted for I enjoy using their free products and don’t mind the ads!
thanks for the informative post
ashleyAshley Faulkes recently published this awesome post..How Simple SEO Can Make A Big Difference

Hi Ashley, Thank you for your kind words. Finding interesting topics is a breeze with tech. I never run out of topics, I can’t get to everything I want to cover!

Thanks for voting in the poll, Ashley. Even though you don’t mind the ads you’re seeing, you still may want to delve into your Ad Settings page. It’s fascinating to see how many Google searches you’ve done and see when you search most frequently. Who knew those analytics were available to us!

It would be cool if we could add interests manually from that page. I’m thinking we could add interests if we kept searching for a term related to one of our interests. Peaking behind the Google curtain sure is revealing!Carolyn Nicander Mohr recently published this awesome post..The 26 Best iOS 8 Tips and Tricks!

it is very interesting. And the fact you cannot do it manually? well I guess that stops people massively gaming the system. But what they give us to see is also nice!Ashley Faulkes recently published this awesome post..A Focus on New Social Media Campaigns

I haven’t checked my interests in a few months. I do a lot of different searches throughout any given day and the ads I see are usually pretty spot on.
Personally I wouldn’t pay a fee to avoid ads, they’re part of the package. Google after all is in the business of making money, just like every one else. To tell you the truth, I have become used to seeing Google ads and they don’t bother me one way or another.Silke Jager recently published this awesome post..Impact of Google Pigeon Update To Local SEO and What You Can Do

Hi Silke, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! That’s great you have checked your interests in the past. I only recently realized we could do this and was excited to share it with Wonder of Tech readers.

Excellent point, Silke. If we’re going to use Google services then seeing ads seems like a small price to pay. We have grown accustomed to web services being free. Imagine even paying a penny for a search, watching a YouTube video or using Google Maps. Even at the smallest price we might think twice about using Google services.

Hi Carolyn,
Thank you, that was a good post. I enjoyed checking out my account history and ads etc. I haven’t really experienced non targeted searches before, so it may be an experiment worth doing for the sake of it.
Otherwise I found most of my news saved was OK.
There was nothing to freak me out.
Knowing how to check periodically is a very good thing for sure and that will be a new habit to inculcate on a regular basis.
If I come across something that does not sound right. It feels good to be able to unstick and delete such information.
I think this post makes all that very clear.
Thanks again.
Nick.

Hi Carolyn,
Quiet interesting article it was. Read each and every bite of it and found very useful. You always writes about those thing which are very helpful in our daily life. And sometime i am completely unaware about those things which you write in your articles. I am thinking what will be in interest section as i do a internet search of 4-5 hours a day. Hope it will be interesting !
Thanks for sharing such a nice article with us.

Hi Rahul, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m glad you found this article so helpful to you. With 4-5 hours of Internet searches per day, you must have quite the Google history (assuming you use Google as your search engine)! Have you checked yet to see whether your interests are accurate? I bet looking at your interests will be interesting!Carolyn Nicander Mohr recently published this awesome post..Free Unlimited Photo Storage for Amazon Prime Members!

I do observe that whenever I do browsing after signing into Google I get other results and when I browse without signing in I get the results similar to my searches that I do at that time.

Once we enable all the components of our search history we don’t have to avoid anything popping in our browser and we get which we want and that’s become quite easier for us to get what want with the best available options.

It is very weird looking up my browsing history. I do so much research and often into weird things. It was obscene words the other day! Then I helped a student and had to research organisations in Hong Kong. My shopping history reveals my liking for retro look clothing. Even my taste in music is there, because I often search for music on Youtube that I don’t have. I don’t find tailored adverts too much, but again, they are often tailored to someone who asked me to look at something. I looked at a collection of scotch whisky the other day at Harrods with a £800,000 price tag. Google now thinks I’m a rich alcoholic! 🙂Mike Maynard recently published this awesome post..Its nearly Christmas

Lol, Mike, those are great examples of how Google can “get it wrong” if it bases your interests on your searches. But Google seems to have gotten your interests spot on, as you said in your comment.

Seeing what Google thinks you’re interested in is very interesting any way. Hmm…I wonder if you keep checking your interests if Google will list Your Interests as one of your interests! 🙂Carolyn Nicander Mohr recently published this awesome post..Motorola Droid Turbo – A Phone that’s Fast and Formidable

I heard about this some time back and I opted out so just double checking the page you pointed us to, none of those are enabled for me so I guess that’s a good thing.

Although I can understand Google doing this because let’s face it, they have to make money in order to keep offering us so many free things. I never click on any of the ads though anywhere so I would never be one of their big money makers anyway. I’m so bad aren’t I!

This is good information to know though and I’m sure everyone really appreciates you keeping us on top of things so thank you Carolyn.

Hi Adrienne, Yes that’s good you’ve customized your Google account to be the way you want it to be. I find that search results are more relevant for me when I allow Google to track my interests so I allow them to do that, but I like that I have a choice.

Some people like having targeted ads because they see ads that have more meaning for them while others would prefer not to be tracked. Knowing you have a choice and how to make that choice are very important.

Hi Hakim, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m so glad you like the topics at The Wonder of Tech. I try to cover a wide variety of tech topics that you can use in your everyday life. Thanks for the visit and taking the time to comment!Carolyn Nicander Mohr recently published this awesome post..10 Top Tech Tools for Your Best Holiday Shopping!

This is quite interesting here! I never really looked at my google history and what they have down of what I may be interested in. As I was reading, I went ahead and followed the link and they had quite a few things that i wasn’t interested in LOL. But you know what? I usually ignore the ads and stay focused on what I’m searching for. Thanks for sharing this info! Hope you’re having a great week!sherman smith recently published this awesome post..Should Network Marketers Use Online Attraction Marketing Systems?